Apple unveils the next iPhone [Updated]

Apple unveiled its next-generation iPhone during an event today and San Francisco, and the biggest surprise was that there weren’t many surprises.

The iPhone 5 showed off by CEO Tim Cook and his lieutenants closely tracked rumors and leaked components that have been flooding the Internet for months. If you’ve been paying attention, not much in today’s announcement was a shocker.

You’ll be able to pre-order one starting Friday, and it will ship a week later, on Sept. 21.

The phone will be priced identically to previous iPhones: $199 for a 16-GB model, $299 for 32GB and $399 for 64GB. Those prices are with a 2-year contract through AT&T, Verizon and Sprint in the United States.

As expected, the iPhone 5 has a 4-inch screen, connects to LTE networks and sports an improved, 8-megapixel camera. It has aluminum unibody construction, and a smaller dock connector.

The addition of LTE is a big step forward for Verizon and Sprint customers – it means they’ll now be able to talk on the phone and use the iPhone’s Internet features at the same time. (Users of Android-based phones with LTE on those carriers have been able to do this for a while.)

Here are the details:

• The iPhone 5 has a 4-inch-diagonal screen that comes close to the 16:9 aspect ratio for high-definition cinema. It has a resolution of 1,136-by-640 pixels. Developers will have to rework existing apps to fit, and those that don’t will be letterboxed, with black bars centering them. Apple’s core apps are already reworked.

As rumored, the touch sensors are now embedded in the glass, which allows for a thinner screen with a brighter display.

• Inside the phone is Apple’s A6 processor, which was described at twice as fast as its predecessor. Ditto for its graphics display. There was no indication if it’s dual- or quad-core, but I’d suspect the latter.

• Battery life sounds promising. Apple says that you’ll get 8 hours of LTE surfing time (though I bet it’s a lot less with video streaming), 10 hours of video playback, 8 hours of 3G talk time and 225 hours on standby.

• You can kiss the very-breakable glass back on the iPhone 4/4S goodbye. The new design has unibody aluminum construction. The back of the white model will be raw aluminum, while the black model has black anodized aluminum.

Apple claims the iPhone is now the thinnest, lightest smartphone on the market, at 7.6mm thick and weighing in at 122 grams. For the metric-system-challenged, that’s .29 inches thick and just over 4 ounces. By comparison, the very-slim Samsung Galaxy S III is 8.6mm thick.

• Apple did indeed make the dock connector smaller, dubbing the new plug Lightning. The company will make adapters available that fit the 9-year-old, 19-pin connector to the newer one. As its name implies, the Lightning connections transfer data faster and, best of all, they’re reversible.

• The camera in the iPhone 5 is also upgraded, to 8 megapixels, with a sapphire lens cover. It now has a panorama feature, making it easy to take pictures of sweeping vistas. And its video capabilities are upgraded, with improved image stabilization and facial recognition. You can also take still photos while taking video.

• Apple has finally reworked the earbuds that come with its iOS devices. Now called EarPods, they have improved sound quality and improved fit in the ear. Apple’s earbuds have long been criticized for offering a lousy listening experience, so here’s hoping these really improve that.

Apple also announced a redesigned iTunes for both Macintosh and PC. The software used to manage music and video on iOS devices has long been criticized for being bloated, slow and complex. Apple showed off new software that appears to be cleaner and less cluttered, along with a redesigned iTunes Store, though whether there are performance improvements remain to be seen. The new iTunes will be available for download in Octxober – Apple was not specific about a date.

The company also refreshed its music player line, offering new versions of the iPod nano andiPod touch.

The nano returns to an elongated square design now has a 2.5-inch multitouch screen and is very thin, at 5 mm. Knowing that many people use iPod nanos during exercise, the new model has a built-in pedometer and works with the Nike+ fitness measurement system. The new nanos also support Bluetooth, so they can be used with wireless speaker systems and headsets. As with previous nanos, they come in a variety of colors, and start at $149 for a 16-GB model. They’ll be available in October.

The iPod touch now has a 4-inch screen, like the iPhone 5, and shares the similar shape and the unibody construction. It’s less than a quarter-inch thick and also comes in multiple colors. Prices start at $199 for a 32-GB model, and pre-orders begin Sept. 14, with sales starting sometime in October.

Update: I have Good news for those AT&T customers who have a grandfathered unlimited data account and want to upgrade to the iPhone 5. An AT&T spokesperson confirmed that you’ll be able to keep your unlimited account.

Yeah, there’s still throttling, but it doesn’t happen until you hit 5 GB each month with LTE, compared to 3 GB for 3G.

Verizon, by contrast, requires customers moving to an LTE phone to switch to one of their new shared-data plans if they’re buying a subsidized phone. Customers who opt for a non-contract phone can keep their grandfathered accounts, but they’ll pay a lot up front for the device.

My colleague at the San Francisco Chronicle, James Temple, will be live blogging the event. Expect the CoverItLive module below to fire up about 11 a.m. CDT just before noon CDT. I’ll be watching several tech sites’ coverage and will be adding commentary in James’ liveblog via my Twitter account.